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Future of OTA

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Comments (3)

UndecidedOTA
in San Francisco, California

4 months ago

Hi everyone! I've been indecisive about my future career. I graduated with a bachelor's in child development, only to find out that I'm not that interested in teaching and jobs in this field aren't as fulfilling as I need it to be in the money aspect. After graduation, I worked as a behavioral therapist for a few months and encountered occupational therapy. I was so intrigued by how occupational therapy can change behavior and the overall lifestyle of people.

I ultimately set my mind on pursuing OTA rather than a master's in OT because of my lacking grades from my undergrad. However, after some research, I've found that there isn't a high demand for OTA's compared to OT. I also wanted to work in a hospital setting but it seems like they're only hiring OTs?

Can any current OTA's in California tell me about the current job outlook? Is it true that they're only hiring OT's in hospitals now?

The field is saturated with OTAs in California. I'm originally from Colorado which is worse than California when it comes to jobs, but not much better. My staffing coordinator has been looking for me another OTA job, but there are none to be found.
OTA will be a Bachelors by 2020 anyway so why not get your OTR. You have a Bachelors already so why not apply to the Masters program which is only two years more. Jobs are way more plentiful for OTRs than OTAs so the best choice is OTR.

milehighcota in Indio, California said: The field is saturated with OTAs in California. I'm originally from Colorado which is worse than California when it comes to jobs, but not much better. My staffing coordinator has been looking for me another OTA job, but there are none to be found.
OTA will be a Bachelors by 2020 anyway so why not get your OTR. You have a Bachelors already so why not apply to the Masters program which is only two years more. Jobs are way more plentiful for OTRs than OTAs so the best choice is OTR.

The main deciding point for me was my GPA from undergrad. My GPA is definitely not competitive enough to apply for OTR and just taking classes to raise my GPA would take at least a year+. If it is the case that there are more jobs for OTR, then I will consider taking the time to raise my GPA. Thanks for your input!!